The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and methods for forming food products, particularly, to an apparatus and methods for forming snack products intended to be held by the fingers and consumed in a single bite, and specifically to an apparatus and methods for forming three dimensional snack products having at least one open end, such as tapered or generally cone-shaped snack products.
One type of food product which has gained wide market acceptance is open-ended, three dimensional snack products. As an example, snack products sold under the trademark BUGLES have enjoyed considerable commercial success worldwide. The production of such snack products has been performed on apparatus of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,398 and especially of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. 3,310,006, which patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In particular, the most recent production equipment prior to the present invention utilized fingers or die pins around which the individual snack products were formed. In this regard, a flat dough sheet was slit into dough strips and conveyed along a conveyor where the two outermost strips were passed through the spacing between adjacent conveyors and each twisted 90.degree. and passed around rollers to the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,006, where the axis of the cutting wheels were parallel to the conveying direction of the dough strips on the conveyor. The remaining strips were continued to be conveyed where the next two outermost strips were passed through the spacing between adjacent conveyors to its corresponding machine, and this process was continued until the two center strips were passed over the end of a final conveyor to its corresponding machine. In certain manufacturing locations, the dough strips were untensioned when they entered the cutting wheels, while in some manufacturing locations the dough strips were under various degrees of tension depending upon the judgment of the particular tastes of the operator of the apparatus.
While such snack products have been successfully produced for over 35 years, there is a continuing need for improved apparatus and methods of production to reduce production costs and to enhance product uniformity. In particular, the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,006 is formed from many moving parts which are subject to wear, failure, and other operational problems. Thus, the prior production machine was capital intensive and operationally expensive in both parts and labor. But more importantly, a major factor in production costs is the area of the footprint of the apparatus in the production facilities, with production expenses being directly related to the amount of space that is required for the production of the snack products. It can be appreciated that because the mechanism for carrying the fingers or die pins must be arranged perpendicularly to the nip between the cutting wheels, it is not possible to arrange the mechanisms to allow the apparatus to be of a compact size but requires considerable spacing between each of the mechanisms.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel apparatus and methods for forming three dimensional snack products from continuous dough strips.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods for forming three dimensional snack products including at least one open end.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods having reduced production costs and enhanced product uniformity than produced utilizing prior apparatus and methods.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods including rotary cutters formed by multiple axially spaced cutting discs on the same mandrel.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods including enhanced removal of the individual food products from the cavities of the cutting discs.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods enhancing the separation of the dough strips during further processing such as during deep frying without requiring the use of fingers or die pins during formation.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods minimizing the area of the footprint of the apparatus.